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GOD OFTEN 'NUDGES' US IN LIFE WITH OCCURRENCES AND STUMBLES AND EVEN SIGNS IN NATURE

Signs? The most important signs are in your own life -- in your own household.

Do you heed all the "little" things that happen to you?

Did you receive any signs this Christmas season?

Discern.

What would they have missed -- the wisemen -- if they had ignored that star?

They come in many ways, signs, especially at this time of the year.

At a stressful moment, there is suddenly the right program on television.

There is the pertinent article on the internet.

There is a little flock of doves along the curb as you make a turn in your car.

Someone comes with a word of consolation.

The "worst" day is followed by the "best" one.

Bad things are only bad when they have no meaning.

Said the Pope in his November 29, 2013, homily: "Always with the spirit of intelligence with which to understand the signs of the times. It is beautiful to ask the Lord for this grace.”

It is illumination.

It may be a dream.

It may be something in nature.

Most frequently it is in our own homes.

It may be spotting a butterfly emerging from its cocoon (signifying transformation).

Maybe He'll show you a spot of green in a circle of burnt grass.

Or snow that's suddenly melting (or building).

God reaches us where we are. He comes to where we are despite our faults. He's available no matter what we have done (or not done). He seeks not perfection on the spot -- right now -- but the effort toward it.

When we try in an honest way it wins His favor.

He is not usually "dramatic."

He "nudges" us. He does this through events in our lives. We are nudged one way or another. We stub a toe going somewhere that might not be in His Plan and when we continue, we stub another toe; if He is really trying to get a point across, we may twist (or worse) an ankle. Bruises. They come in the course of life.

Of course, we can twist an ankle when the enemy is trying to halt us or due to simple earthly occurrences (in case you believe in happenstance) and so at night every night it helps to take our day through a process in prayer of discernment. This means asking for illumination. It is an "examination of conscience." We must ask God not only to forgive the obvious sins but also to indicate areas of imperfection (for imperfections too can send us to purgatory). Ask God to see yourself as He does. It is an important prayer. For no one is without imperfection; no one has nothing to say during Confession. (Pope Francis goes to Confession every two weeks.)

Only in pride can we believe ourselves to be totally pure. In this life, we are in need of constant deliverance. We can even have pride in not having pride!

Often, we are nudged through something that causes a confrontation.

In this way do we also find ourselves sanctified in our families (for confrontations most often occur there).

When we approach spiritual attacks as nudges or "pressures" of life, instead of only as "warfare," we realize that a goal in life is to step back and see issues with love (not resentment).

At night, we should search our day and ask ourselves what good we did that day. When we're nudged, we should review our direction. He nudges when we are dead-set on something and often His nudge is contrary to our strongest inclination.

When so, a nudge can become a shove.  And when that occurs, we should ask: does the inclination come from the brain or the heart? Is it of the spirit or the flesh? Why do we want what we want?

A good question!

We may see signs in our families, in our household, at work, in dreams. We may see signs in nature. As a man who glimpsed the afterlife maintained, he now sees signs in new grass on burnt soil, that chrysalis transformed into a butterfly, a cicada emerging from nymph form. God doesn't always continue to nudge. In fact, often there is only the initial sign.

But signs there are, and those who ignore them or don't believe in them as if miracles ceased 2,000 years ago stumble and stub toes and worse because in pride and disbelief they wander blindly.